Voluntary disclosure scheme (VDS) launched by Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has made the department richer by collecting over Rs 5.75 crore from Ludhiana alone against 2,962 applications. The VDS was opened on March 1 and was to close by May 31, but it has now been extended till June 30.

The state is, at present, grappling under unscheduled power cuts as 8 thermals are lying closed of the 14 in name of maintenance. Now once again the department has been given yet another task as how to augment the system so as to make the declared load regular or the system will collapse. It needs to be mentioned that a total of 19,470 KW has been declared by various categories since March 1 while in agriculture section- 3842.5 break horse power(BHP) has been declared.

Last week, industrialists met the chief engineer demanding augmentation of the system in Janta Nagar at least looking at the loads of applications under VDS or the existing transformers will not be able to take up the entire load. Chief Engineer Rachpal Singh, however, said that they were on job to place new transformers and they were well aware of the enhanced load in various categories. ENS